Death is a Social Construct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Death is a Social Construct - Essay Example With death the bond between the spirit and the physical being is dissolved. As per the Webster's dictionary the "social constructs" can be stated as a social mechanism, phenomenon, or category created and developed by society; a perception of an individual, group, or idea that is constructed via cultural and/or social practice. Death is not a social construct in the literal sense as people do die whether the society wants them to or not. The rituals associated with death and the meaning that every group gives to this concept differs from society to society and culture to culture. This meaning is created and developed by the society and the religion that they practice. For example: Hindu's believe in seven lives, thus when a person in their community dies they believe that he will be reborn. On the other hand, Muslims believe in life after death not rebirth. Both religions have very different ways of tending to the dead; the Hindu's burn the dead while the Muslims bury them. From this we can see the way society and social constructs have affected the concept of death but not death itself. Death traditions take longer to change. The changes in the recent past have come from the grass roots. Phillipe Aries's classic The Hour of Our Death (1982) has categorized deaths evolution into five categories. Death used to be a part of every community, this was when communities were small and close knitted. The death rituals were personal as well as public but nowadays death has entered the invisible era. Here death is kept a secret and nobody talks about it, it is a taboo to mention it. In Phillipe's book the five eras of death mentioned are: tame death, death of self, remote and imminent death, death of the other and invisible death. The society we live in finds it necessary to anthropomorphize the death and project it categories and relations. Every religion has some degree of anthropomorphizing of the concept of death; just the intensity with which it is instilled in every religion differs. We find a need to rationalize the concept, to face reality and this is done from two basic sources: first is the anthropomorphic character, which is that we continue to exist even though somebody has died. The second source is the social institutions that make people face reality through the socialization process. They make them think logically and legitimately. Social institutions that control the concept of death can not loose sight of the biological being. The biology of an individual limits the reality constructing activities. The survivors blur the difference between the dead and the living especially when they have recently lost a loved one. An example to explain this would be that of the European peasant cultures feed ing the returning soul. This refers to the symbolic form of eating as the soul can not eat the same way a live person can. If this was to be the case than the soul would have to have some features which can enable this act, this is negated by experience. (Berta, 1960) In the article by Derek Edwards, Malcolm Ashmore and Jonathan Potter, death and furniture are represented as arguments which go against the relativism to extremes. Death has two versions, the bad version, which is focused on the misery and the tragedy associated with death. This version of death is directly linked to

Managing Organizational Change Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing Organizational Change - Term Paper Example It also offers a basis of evaluating the role of leadership and other change agent in the chance process (Kezar, 2001). An organization in the Financial/Banking Industry derives benefits due to roles played by people in the organization and their attitudes to the change process, especially in condition where there are cases of resistance. Nevertheless, this paper will focus on exploring the organizational change in the Financial/Banking Industry, through a description of management theory and system practices used in the organizations. Organization change is defines as a form of evolution that takes place though a life cycle, without which, the organization would not be able to develop or grow properly. Therefore, the growth calls for an organization to undergo a substantial change in different points of a development process. Influence of change is substantial to employees, organization and transformation, which is at the purpose of both employees and organization like a decision to terminate a section of business. However, the decision is at the best interests of the organization in their long-term objective, but consequences of that closure can have an adverse impact on employees involved, since they will be faced with problems of unemployment. In fact, the impact of the changes on the organization and employees, and the possible alternatives of dealing with the changes is a substantial issue that needs addressing. Background Organization change requires a change agent who refers to person that perpetrates the act or develops a process through which things in the organization become different (Shankar, 2013). For instance, a change occurs in situation, which members of an organization adapt or fail to adapt to dynamic environment, which is considered as a way of sustaining their competitive advantage through flexibility (Shankar, 2013). The role of being a change agent can be undertaken by a HR manager in an organization by implementing organizational change , through a demonstration unique versatility and wide range of skills (Stagl, 2011). The HR manager fostering change in the organization focuses on implementation or execution of activities that deal with employees’ behavior and attitude (Stagl, 2011). Therefore, as a change agent he or she focuses on identifying cues that impede change and the step that can be taken to eliminate these obstacles. There are other benefits that involve ability to forecast and identify need for change and this serves as a significant contributor that enables the organization to succeed and survive in adverse business environment (Kezar, 2001). Research techniques in the evaluation process offer a basis of applying literature critiquing teleological model, which are dominant model within the literature; in fact, they are evaluated in terms of their relevance for given forms of changes, which are proven by numerous studies (Shani, Pasmore & Woodman, 2011). Research techniques in the process of eva luating organization change offers recommendations on ways of challenging potential barriers to change, thereby setting principles that can be applied by leaders to establish a new

A Minimum Of Two A Short Story

A Minimum Of Two A Short Story Minimum of two is a collection of short stories written by Australian writer Tim Winton. He writes his stories in different views such as first and third person, mainly for the reader to feel the story more in depth. The book features 14 short stories which are; Forest Winter, No Memory Comes, Gravity, The Water was Dark and it went forever down, Nislams Friend, Minimum of two, Distant Lands, Laps, Bay of Angels, The strong one. Holding, More, Death belongs to the dead his father told him and sadness to the sad and finally Blood and water. Throughout all of these stories there is relevant trauma for past events, coming to an outcome of growth in either a positive or negative way. The short story that in my opinion is the most powerful in regards to trauma and growth is the story Minimum of two. Its written in first person view of the husband (Neil). This is a deep story about a married woman called Greta getting raped by a senior in her department by the name of Fred Blakey. He is taken to court by Greta and Neil and is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment but for Neil this is not enough because he went through ample suffering through the recovery of Greta in the way that she did not want to be intimate with him because she was sensitive as expected after being raped. With this issue, Neil decides to take matters in his own hands and contemplates killing Blakey when he gets released, he tells his friend Tony Mitchell that he will be doing this. Mitchell doesnt agree with what Neil wants to do, but Neil doesnt listen to him and ends up killing Blakey when he got out. His conscience then catches up with him and he then feels like the most horrible person, saying that he feels that he was a dead man. The main trauma in this story is the rape of Greta by Fred Blakey, this is mainly trauma from Greta as she becomes sensitive and doesnt get intimate with Neil, this is also a traumatic for him, and this is shown in the way he writes about his feelings. It seems like her intimacy with him is a great thing for him making this story traumatic for both Neil and Greta. In the ending Neil kills Blakey and comes to a negative growth of feeling sorry for himself, as well as losing his best friend Tony Mitchell. The next story that showed trauma and growth is the story called Distant Lands. Its written in the third person view. This short story is about an overweight woman working at her fathers newsagency. This woman is called Fat Maz she was teased and tormented through high school and also was not supported very well by her parents, they also treated her as if they didnt know her or that she wasnt their daughter. There was a day though that changed her life, a stranger Pakistani man comes into the newsagency, and opens the book Distant Lands has a glance and leaves. As she goes to inspect the book she realises the blurb saying You will want this book never to finishafter she reads the blurb she is interested in reading the book, as she is reading it the Pakistani man comes into the newsagency once again and this time re-opening Distant Lands and smiling at Fat Maz, he gives her money and some confidence to leave her garbage job helping at her fathers newsagency The trauma in this story is mainly from Fat Mazs life, how she had been teased all in high school and even at home with her parents she wasnt treated nicely. The growth coming from this is positive when a mysterious Pakistani man comes in and gives her money and confidence to leave her job at the newsagency. Another story that had trauma with growth coming as an outcome is the story Laps. This story written in the third person view is about a young woman by the name of Queenie that has flashbacks of her childhood, and her grandfather when he was alive as she swims laps through a pool. She is new to Perth, and she is somehow reminded of her grandfather and the whaling projects from her childhood and she is haunted by these thoughts. She then gathers enough courage to go back to her home town to tackle her past, and then be able to move on with her life. The trauma from this story is the flashbacks that Queenie get from her troubled childhood; she sees these horrible flashbacks when swimming as swimming reminded her of an earlier time of her life. The growth gathered from this story is that Queenie had the courage to go back to her home town and sort out her problems so that she is now able to live a new life in Perth with no haunting flashbacks. Tim Winton is a talented writer with allot of creativity shown in this collection of Minimum of two. He has the ability to write about hard trauma, but also an outcome of growth. The three stories chosen for this essay (Minimum of two, Distant Lands and Laps) are all examples of how he can bring growth out of trauma. In conclusion this collection of short stories by Tim Winton is really moving to the reader, as he brings not only trauma but growth out of each story.

Inequality in the Legal System of the United States Essay -- essays re

In the United States, true equality has never existed. From the Declaration of Independence to modern times, the U.S. legal system has failed in any attempt at equality. The ideology of "all [men] are equal but some [men] are more equal than others" has been present throughout the history of the U.S. (Orwell). Inequality has always existed in the United States legal system and continues to exist today; however, the inequality presently in the system is not as blatant as what it once was, but the system has come to depend on inequality. Since the very beginning of a legal system in the United States, there has been inequality. The Declaration of Independence declared that "†¦all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights†¦"(Jefferson). The reality of the Declaration of Independence was that all free, white, landowning men are created equal. Slavery continued in the U.S. for nearly ninety years after the Declaration, and black Americans still feel the sting of inequality. Women were also left out of "†¦all men are created equal†¦." The implied meaning of the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence is what the U.S. legal system has strived for and failed to grasp fully. After the establishment of independence in the United States, the development of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights ensued. The Bill of Rights was to establish the basic rights of every citizen of the United States, but failed to do so. The rights of white, male citizens were the only rights that were ensured by the Bill of Rights. The rights of blacks and the underprivileged were not even considered. The Fifth Amendment states, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury†¦, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation" ("Constitution", Amendment V). These rights were often denied to those that were second class citizens or those people that were not even considered to be people, such as slaves. The rights ensured by the first ten amendments have been denied to some part of the population at any given time in American history. The denying of the basic rights established by the Bill of Rights is not limited to the any one amendment.... ...aration of Independence". Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. CD-ROM. Britannica. 1998. "Jim Crow Laws". Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. CD-ROM. Britannica. 1998. Kairys, David. "Unexplained on Grounds Other Than Race". American University Law Review. Volume 45, Book 3. 12 Dec. 1999. href="http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/journals/lawrev/KAIRYS.HTM">http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/journals/lawrev/KAIRYS.HTM Orwell, George. Animal Farm in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. CD-ROM. Microsoft. 1997. "Racial segregation" Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. CD-ROM. Britannica. 1998.United States Supreme Court. "Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)." Selected Historic Decisions of the US Supreme Court. Legal Information Institute, 1999. 12 Dec. 1999. href="http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm">http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm United States Supreme Court. "Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)." Selected Historic Decisions of the US Supreme Court. Legal Information Institute, 1999. 12 Dec. 1999. href="http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm">http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm

McDonalds wishes to rework on its restaurant interiors Essay

McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with more than 33,000 locations in 118 countries. McDonald’s has several company owned stores, but uses Franchising for both domestic and international expansion. McDonald’s India was set up as a 50:50 joint-venture between McDonald’s at a global level and regional Indian partners such as Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited in western India, and Connaught Plaza Restaurants Private Limited in northern India. McDonald’s currently has over 220 restaurants in the country. McDonalds doesn’t provide any financial assistance and absentee ownership of finance is not allowed. Also, the financial requirements are quite steep. MFY- for implementing the MFY (Made for You) option for customers, the franchises are required to upgrade their equipment at their own expense. This caused some problem with maintaining standard service across all outlets. Pricing and menu may also be a point of difficulty for the franchiser and franchisee as prices vary between companies owned and franchised stores. Inconsistent standards- There are several instances of poor service or disgruntled customers complaining about the quality of food served. This is because it is difficult to enforce the exact same standards in all franchised stores. McDonald’s aims to provide 100 percent total customer satisfaction. In order to achieve this goal , McDonald’s relies on its operating philosophy based on QSC & V – Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value. McDonald’s believes that customer satisfaction is crucial to the success of the brand and all Restaurants must perform to the standards. These standards are used in both company owned and franchised restaurants. QUALITY Best ingredients: This is achieved by its commitment to sourcing all its requirements from local farmers and suppliers. Before entering India, the company spent six years and Rs. 450 crore toset up its supply chain. In India McDonalds pioneered the cold chain management which helpskeep vegetables and processed products safe for a longer time. Preparation Standards: Best quality standardized ingredients ensure standardized preparation standards can be followed. Every product has a fixed procedure of preparation. However, newer McDonald’s stores offer MFY (Made for You) where the product is made only after the order is placed. Other standards: * FIFO: (First in first out) for all inventories. * Reverse osmosis water treatment plant: Best technology for water purification at every outlet to provide water. Strict standards for vegetarian products including eggless mayonnaise and eggless ice-cream. SERVICE * Soft standards: * Welcome every customer with a smile and are genuinely friendly at all times * Deliver consistent standards of hospitality Seize opportunities to interact with customers in a personal and positive way * Be well informed about product contents and nutritional information * Always appear clean and well groomed. * Hard standards: * Serve fresh and hot * Serve within one minute of receiving order or give a free coke. This is implemented in a few outlets and is not applicable during peak hours. * Cleanliness and Hygiene * The counters, tables, floor area are to be kept clean at all times. * All staff required to cover their heads and wear gloves when within preparation area. * All these standards are evaluated by mystery shoppers and rated. This is called a RVR Restaurant Visitation Report) which provides a snapshot of the stores performance over a period of a few hours. The stores are graded either A, B, C or F. Facility Exterior: Exterior Design: McDonalds design exhibits a sense of â€Å"Forever Young† look with bright red and yellow colours appealing to the children and establishing its family restaurant positioning. The building provides a practical, contemporary design that aligns with the McDonald’s brand essence while accommodating the latest operational and consumer experience standards. Their mascot Ronald Mcdonald is also present outside each of their restaurants. McDonalds always have all glass restaurants. McDonalds has always clearly identified and managed the various clues that customers use to form the impressions and feeling about their company. In addition to this, McDonalds has separate take away counters in order to save time of their patrons. Signage: All of McDonalds external signage reads as, â€Å"McDonalds-Family restaurant. Also keeping in mind with the local language, all McDonalds restaurant have their name boards in Hindi. McDonalds strongly believes in adhering to the local sentiments and hence none of the outlets in India sell Beef products and every restaurant has this mentioned. Also McDonalds, strongly believes in glass branding for any new products or services they offer. Most of the communication is designed to cater to local tastes and preferences. Parking/Landscape/Surrounding Environment: All McDonald outlets are located are accessible and present everywhere thus capitalizing on brand recognition. Most of the McDonalds have their own restaurants and hence the seating space available is exclusive to McDonald’s patrons. Also McDonalds offers proper parking facilities for its highway restaurants. Facility Interior All McDonalds outlet are standardized in terms of layout and have proper in-store branding. The â€Å"Young and Cheerful† design concept is a progressive, youthful, and energetic environment with open views for social interaction. All McDonald outlets are huge with proper aisles and passages with appropriate signage for seating arena, lavatories, wet floor and food counters. McDonalds has a Made for You food preparation platform.MFY is a unique concept (cooking method) where the food is prepared as the customer places its order. This cooking method has helped McDonald’s further strengthen its food safety, hygiene and quality standards. McDonalds also has illuminated Menu boards that offer a mix of both vegetarian and non vegetarian burgers along with other savories and drinks. McDonalds also has proper queues for placing order and often there is a executive who assists you in order placing. Also McDonalds gives toys for children thus making them wanting to come back. The other visible cues are color, lighting, in-store music, employee uniforms and trays with literary. McDonalds has ample in store lighting and directly inï ¬â€šuences an individual’s perception of the deï ¬ nition and quality of the space, inï ¬â€šuencing his or her awareness of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects of the space. The bright McDonald stores ensure prompt handling and evaluation of products. In all McDonald stores the lighting is perceived as more pleasant than other fast food environments. The color scheme that McDonalds uses exhumes cheerfulness and warmth. Red depicts vibrance, cheerfulness while yellow depicts friendliness and brightness. At McDonalds, music is a positive auditory cue stimulating specific consumer behaviour and emotions. Music appears to influence buyer-seller interaction. There is audio played about the latest offers and products. Also a balance and constant sound creates a pleasant sound environment. All employees at McDonald are provided with uniforms and name badges along with caps with McDonald signature â€Å"M† arch. Employees are also trained with appropriate soft skills to address customers. Every employee or front line executive greets the customer and exchanges pleasantries, which makes them happy. Service quality gap: The five gaps that organizations should measure manage and minimize: Gap 1 (Listening gap) is the distance between what customers expect and what managers think they expect – Clearly survey research is a key way to narrow this gap. Gap 2 (standard and specification gap) is between management perception and the actual specification of the customer experience – Managers need to make sure the organization is defining the level of service they believe is needed. 29 Gap 3 (performance gap)is from the experience specification to the delivery of the experience -Managers need to audit the customer experience that their organization currently delivers in order to make sure it lives up to the specification Gap 4 (communication gap) is the gap between the delivery of the customer experience and what is communicated to customers – All too often organizations exaggerate what will be provided to customers, or discuss the best case rather than the likely case, raising customer expectations and harming customer perceptions Gap 5 is the gap between a customer’s perception of the experience and the customer’s expectation of the service – Customers’ expectations have been shaped by word of mouth, their personal needs and their own past experiences. Routine transactional surveys after delivering the customer experience are important for an organization to measure customer perceptions of service Service Quality dimensions Tangibles : Physical evidence of service Reliability : Consistency of performance and dependability Responsiveness : Willingness/readiness of employees to provide service in timely manner Credibility : Trustworthiness, believability, honesty Security : Freedom from danger, risk, doubt, assurance guarantee, Certification Competence : Possession of required skills to perform service Access : Approachability and ease of contact Empathy Courtesy : Politeness, respect, consideration, friendliness Values: They place customer experience at the core of all they do: They believe customers are the reason for their existence. They demonstrate their appreciation by providing them with high quality food and superior service in a clean, welcoming environment, at a great value. Their goal is quality, service, cleanliness and value (QSC&V) for each and every customer, each and every time. They are committed to their people. They provide opportunity, nurture talent, develop leaders and reward achievement. They believe that a team of well-trained individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, working together in an environment that fosters respect and drives high levels of engagement, is essential to their continued success. They believe in the McDonald’s System. McDonald’s business model, depicted by their â€Å"three-legged stool† of owner/operators, suppliers, and company employees, is their foundation, and balancing the interests of all three groups is the key. They operate their business ethically. Sound ethics is good business. At McDonald’s, they hold themselves and conduct their business to high standards of fairness, honesty, and integrity. They are individually accountable and collectively responsible. They give back to their communities. They take seriously the responsibilities that come with being a leader. They help their customers in building better communities, support Ronald McDonald House Charities, and leverage their size, scope and resources to help make the world a better place. They grow their business profitably. McDonald’s is a publicly traded company. As such, they work to provide sustained profitable growth for their shareholders. This requires continuous focus on their customers and the health of their system. They strive continually to improve. They are a learning organization that aims to anticipate and respond to changing customer, employee and system needs through constant evolution and innovation. McDonald’s is committed to providing the highest quality food and superior service, at a great value, in a clean and welcoming environment. That’s why we work with their employees, franchisees, and suppliers to serve a balanced array of food choices and provide the nutrition inform ation needed for customers to make sound decisions. At the restaurant level, McDonald’s is focused on energy conservation, sustainable packaging, and waste management. They are dedicated to innovate and improve their operations in order to build an even more sustainable, environment friendly and profitable business. And will continue to re optimize their menu, modernize the customer experience, and broaden accessibility to their brand, so that consumers will always enjoy the maximum McDonald’s experience. Service Blueprint: Loopholes in service operations: A research report released Thursday by Dunnhumby, highlighted by The Wall Street Journal, elucidates that in reality the customer eating experience is becoming more and more important to consumers. With so many fast-food options available, they make their decisions based on loyalty — and a significant portion of this support is garnered through a chain’s friendly customer service and good eating experience. It is without doubt that McDonald’s is still winning over Americans with its cheap Dollar Menu offerings and convenient drive thru service. But its poor customer-service scores are ultimately hurting its sales– a certainty supported by the Dunnhumby report that demonstrates that restaurants with higher customer-service scores tend to show higher comparable sales growth over a two-year period. Thus, if the world’s largest restaurant chain wants to maintain its edge over competitors, it must not only focus on price and promotions, but also the expe rience it offers to customers every day. And McDonald’s executives agree. The Wall Street Journal explains that in a webcast these executives held with franchise owners in March, they called its service â€Å"broken.† The number of customer complaints related to friendliness issues have only increased, and complaints about speed of service also â€Å"have increased significantly over the past six months.† Is it then perhaps possible that customers are becoming more accustomed to the friendly service and loyalty rewards they receive at other growing chains like and then less tolerating of the subpar services they encounter at other fast food chains? With respect to the services provided by McDonalds, the following management issues were observed McDonalds wishes to rework on its restaurant interiors and match up to those of its self owned restaurants, However the problem that they have encountered is that franchisee owners are unwilling to invest in interior design. McDonald’s has introduced MFY (Made for You) whereby the burgers are made after the order is placed. However, the franchises are required to upgrade their equipment in order to follow this. The franchisees are not willing to incur such expenditure which poses a problem to McDonald’s. We normally observe the customary trend of people queuing outside McDonalds especially during the weekends. This is due to the limited capacity space in the restaurants. This has been a persistent management problem for McDonalds. Even though the management at McDonalds has been trying to search for a solution for the same, it fears doing so pertaining to cost issues.

In a Mans World

In John Steinbeck’s, Chrysanthemums, he generalizes the spirit of a woman and delivers to the audience her thoughts and underlying emotions of being a woman in a â€Å"man’s world. † The chrysanthemums reflects Elisa’s character and her dreams of being free to grow, make decisions, free to travel, make her own money and most of all the desire to be attractive. Elisa feels closed in and secluded from the rest of the world, just as Steinbeck describes the atmosphere at the introduction of the story, â€Å"The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world† (192). Feeling weak and powerless, Elisa unconsciously demonstrates the characteristics of masculinity in order to assimilate into a world not of a woman. For instance, she dresses in clothes that are too big for her feminine features and wears her husband’s huge hat which covers her soft womanly features. Therefore, all of her tools and gardening were, to her, considered â€Å"powerful† and strong. In lines 27-29, Elisa is clearly mimicking the power displayed the men talking in the shed (her husband and two men) â€Å"She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful† (193). Elisa’s deepest passion is to be strong and powerful. In line 29, the chrysanthemums are described as â€Å"too small and easy† as it seemed to Elisa, though, resembling her own self-image. She exhibits control in the presence of her husband, not to appear diminutive. As she responds to her husband’s comments (â€Å"You’ve got a strong new crop coming. †) regarding her chrysanthemums, she straightens her stance and condescendingly tells him that her chrysanthemums will be strong soon â€Å"Yes. They’ll be strong this coming year† (193). Being a woman is most difficult in life. For Elisa, being treated as the complete opposite of how she wishes to be treated is what frustrates her. However, she is a woman, and the fact that she responds with innate appropriateness is what frustrates her the most. Henry (her husband) tells her that he wants to take her to dinner and a show in the Salina’s, which clearly surprises her, he jokes about taking her to see fights and she responds to him as any woman would â€Å"Oh no. I wouldn’t like fights† (193). Elisa doesn’t realize her husband is being sarcastic in that particular suggestion â€Å"Just fooling, Elisa† (193). Henry feels because she is a woman she won’t be interested or perhaps he is suggesting that she appears to be too masculine, checking to see if she is still womanly. Elisa is also frustrated with her abilities underestimated, as Henry noted her excellent garden, he commented â€Å"I wish you’d work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big† (193). She perceives this comment as if he is saying to her that she cannot multi-task â€Å"Her eyes sharpened. â€Å"Maybe I could do it, too† † (193). When the stranger is at her home he tells her that the road is no good life for a woman, Elisa is offended by this because she feels as if she is just as capable as he is of living on the road and sharpening scissors and repairing pots as he does â€Å"You might be surprised to have a rival some time. I can sharpen scissors, too. And I can beat the dents out of the little pots. I could show you what a woman might do† (197). Elisa’s hopes of going out into the real world are implied to the stranger when he tells her of a customer who loves chrysanthemums and she agrees to give him some for his customer. The chrysanthemums become symbolic of her hopes, â€Å"I’ll put them in a flower pot, and you can take them right with you† (196). The pot that the chrysanthemums are placed in is described as â€Å"a bright new pot† symbolizing a new life. As the stranger was leaving with her chrysanthemums, she reiterated to him to keep the sand damp so the plants wouldn’t die, in other words, take care of her. As he left, she said good-bye to her life and assumed a brighter direction â€Å"that’s a bright direction, there’s a glowing there (197). Realizing how many undesirable relationships she’s had or maybe the impassionate marriage she is in, Elisa reflects on her need to be desired as she explains to the stranger the meaning of â€Å"planting hands† â€Å"Everything goes right down into your fingertips. You watch your fingers work. They do it themselves. You can feel how it is. They pick and pick the buds. They never make a mistake† (196), then she emphasizes â€Å"Your fingers and the plant. You can feel it. When you’re like that you can’t do anything wrong. † (196). The stranger knew what Elisa was saying to him, so he tried to tell her of how he felt, but the pride in her took over and she did not let him finish, only to assume what he was going to say to satisfy herself. Admiring herself in the mirror, Elisa wonders how attractive she is in the eyes of a man. Her interlude, so to speak, with the stranger made her feel attractive, sexy even. She became exited about her new â€Å"spirit† and dressed in her nicest garments, fixed her hair and put on lipstick. With a feeling of revival, Elisa waits for her husband on the porch with a new inspiration to become more than a â€Å"woman. † Wearing her emotions on her face, Henry approaches and notices the difference in his wife, â€Å"Henry stopped short and looked at her. † Then he responded with words of affirmation â€Å"Why-Why, Elisa. You look so nice! † (198). â€Å"I mean you look different, strong and happy. † (198). Elisa clearly stated that she only felt strong and did not say she was happy. Her strength is what she relied on and her new journey on the road is what revived her soul. Elisa found that the stranger who desired her and took some part of her with him had threw her (her chrysanthemums) out on the road. She then knew that changing her life wouldn’t be so easy, yet she wouldn’t give up. She will have wine with her husband to remove the tension of her marriage and maybe pursue intimacy, which she is clearly missing, and she will maybe attend a fight as if it that will make her feel like a new woman â€Å"Do any women ever go the fights? (199). When Henry tells her that women go, she changes her mind, because she would not be the first or only woman at the fights. The wine that they’ll have at dinner will definitely help her to forget about her day and her life for the time being. Elisa feels as if she’s missed out on a real life. Being a woman in her days has been hard for her, sheltered, sexually repressed and minimal limitations as a woman has been mentally tormenting. Trying to stay strong has took a toll on her and the chrysanthemums that she raises every year, stronger and stronger, longer and longer, gives her hope for a better year just like them. The buds or years of her life have been picked off and cut down, but she has managed to grow them back strong. Elisa feels as if time is running out for her and her frustrations and profound sorrow over takes her and she can no longer hold back her tears â€Å"She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly-like and old woman† (199).

Mary Shelleys Cloning essays

Mary Shelley's Cloning essays If we look at Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, cloning and the moral issues surrounding it become prevalent. The creature in the novel was in essence and by definition a human clone. The real monster in the story, though, was doctor Frankenstein himself. He attempts to do humanity a service by searching for a way to cheat death and perpetuate life. In doing so, the doctor creates a being that ironically takes life away. Shelleys position on cloning is that the possible benefits are not positive enough to overcome the bad and, thus, that cloning is negative in practice. Her opinion is only one out of many. There are a great many positives that cold also come out of cloning as well. A clone is a replication of an individual in a select species that is created asexually. The first question you have to answer when dealing with human cloning is What is a human? To be human and have the characteristics of the species are the ultimate goals for a clone. A human being is a creature who thinks on a higher level than other animals. The thing that separates us as humans from other animals is the ability to reason. The capacity to learn and differentiate between any number of things and analyze that same information is a defining characteristic of reasoning. If a clone is created asexually, the question that stems from this creation becomes, Is this thing human? Although on a much higher level of thought than animals, people still have instinctual reactions toward everything. Mankind is afraid of the things it does not know. Being that we do not know what exactly a clone will be in our society or if it will be the same as the rest of us, it is understandable that people, with this innate feeling of anxiety, fear clones. This feeling could explain our continual search for all the answers to the questions of life, philosophy, and the arts. We also get a sense that we as humans nee...